On October 30, 1938, one of the most controversial and infamous media broadcast occured when Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre on the Air performed their adaptation of H.G. Welles' classic science fiction novel "The War of the Worlds." Their radio play generated mass hysteria across America, convincing millions of people that an invasion from Mars was coming to their cities and towns, thus becoming known as "The Panic Broadcast."

Today, as a tribute to this radio broadcast, I decided to do a re-imagining of it thorugh the use of sound effects gathered from numerous sources, along with accompanying background music to give a modern twist to this classic broadcast. You may recognize effects from the 1950's motion picture adaptation of the novel, along with Star Wars, the CBS Special Prensentation sounder, WCBS station ID, fake commercials from South Park, Ren and Stimpy, and even the famous Wilhem yell. There are even old news clips that pertain to UFOs, including ABC's report on the Roswell UFO crash and CBS's report on the Battle of Los Angeles from 1942.

Background music was used for many of the segments. If you enjoy the music very much, I encourage you to support the artist and purchase their works from iTunes or even your local record store. The following tracks used are:
Domain - The Future Sound of London - Lifeforms
Earth (Gaia) - The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld (Live Mix MK 10) - The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Ectoplasm - OM - Instant Enlightenment
Close Encounter - The Orb - U.F.Orb
One Of These Days - Pink Floyd - Meddle
The President's Speech - David Arnold - Indenpendence Day (Original Soundtrack Recording)
Mars - Juno Reactor - Beyond The Infinite
Mars, The Bringer of War - Isao Tomita - The Planets
Green Sky - Tiesto - tiesto.com
Beginning Of The End - Emergency Broadcast System - Telecommunication Breakdown
Life Forms Ends - The Future Sound of London - Lifeforms
Blue Calx - Aphex Twin - Ambient Works Volume 2
Dead Cities - The Future Sound of London - Dead Cities
Quagmire / In A State Of Permanent Abyss - The Future Sound of London - Dead Cities
On (Remix) - Aphex Twin - On

Special thanks to Clyde Lewis, James Evan Pilato, Dave Comstock, and Kielen King for their wisdom and inspirations. In addition, more thanks go out to WAV Central, Sound Bible, audiomicro.com, and Tiesto.com for many of the source materials.

If you have any comments, questions or problems, please e-mail a message to warriorchief54@yahoo.com. Hope you enjoy this.

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews (1)